TINYpulse Award Winner: Interview With SCM

Congrats to SCM for winning the 2015 TINYpulse Employee Recognition Award. Not only are they leaders of appreciation in the Business Services & Consulting industry, they also took the overall award for employee recognition.

This award highlights organizations where employees aren't afraid to show each other their appreciation. Ron Gantt, VP of SCM, shared with us how they keep their employees happy.

Q: Tell us about some of the great things you do in your workplace that keep employees engaged and energized.

A: We are pretty engaged with our staff, as we consider them to be our greatest asset. We have regular company lunches and staff meetings with awards for TINYpulse recognition. In our office, we also have a set of couches in the middle of the space, where we meet with folks coming and going regularly to collaborate, share stories, and solve problems.

Q: Tell us a little bit about what your company does and why employee recognition is so important to you.

A: Our organization does safety consulting and training. We consult with a variety of clients in various industries on how to develop safe workplaces. This means that our “product” resides in our employees. The interaction they have with our clients is what leaves the clients with an impression of who we are as an organization. This makes motivating and recognizing our employees for great service pivotal. It provides them with feedback to facilitate continual improvement.

Q: When you think back to your time climbing up the job ranks, what got you really motivated to go the extra mile?

A: Well, what we do is help people create an organizational climate that facilitates the creation of safety. This means you can draw a correlation between what we do and saving lives, which is a good feeling and inspires us to do better.

Q: How do you think changing generational dynamics (e.g. the increase in millennials in the workplace) affects the need for recognition?

A: The millennials are more used to having their esteem “esteemed.” But this is not limited to millennials. We have older employees who also require support. It costs nothing to say thank you to an employee and for managers to interact with their workforce in a positive way. The thing with millennials is that you need to find ways to engage them that are more interactive and take advantage of media they are used to (technology). This makes TINYpulse ideal.

Q: What kind of improvements/changes have you seen in your culture after using TINYpulse?

A: We place a high emphasis on sending cheers to colleagues. This builds a familial atmosphere amongst our team, which is crucial, given that our work makes it difficult to interact with each other regularly. With TINYpulse we can “keep in touch,” and this has helped us build a much stronger team atmosphere.

Thank you to Ron and his team at SCM for sharing their story! Keep an eye out for more interviews with TINYpulse award winners.